Lab Cleaning

I am beat today. On August 13 to 14, the problem student has ordered a new analysis equipment and the technician is to installed them. I have been so preoccupied with the cat things, I didn't really care to participate in the demonstration (it was in Japanese anyways)

Since Sabi is not in the hospital, I had some time to clean up my own desk and organize the documents and reference papers I had from the last semester. I went over the the other room and took a closer look at the new equipment. That's when I noticed that the file server at that place, the monitor, keyboard, mouse had been shoved to the other table with the wiring still connected. The new equipment was installed with cables going everywhere. It was a mess. I couldn't believe that a profession would allow something like this. Even the new printer was placed on a chair because there was no place to put it. What I was more upset about was the student that was responsible for overseeing this installation. It was just very irresponsible for the both of them. I took sometime to remove the wiring and reconnecting the printer/file server back online. Then organize the cabling for the new equipment. To my relief, Ohgai-san came to help me with the amperage problem. After that I spent a bit more time combining a few computers together because we were running out of space.

Afterwards, I began to pack up the cardboard boxes that the students failed to recycle over the past 2 months. At around 5pm, the problem student came to ask me about the printer server, I said it's not ready. Perhaps he didn't understand me, but I didnt care. After packing up all the cardboard boxes, I went to the student room to update the printer drivers on all the computer. Ohgai-san also happened to be in the room, crawling under the desks to check the electrical wirings. I kindly updated the problem student's printer driver too. Because he was bitching the the on-leave-professor about how we disconnected his printer and network access intentionally.

By 6pm I finished all the dirty work, and went downstairs to catch a little break feeding the cats. I went home at around 7pm, having done all of the updates. At 8pm or so I got a called from the lab. When I answered I knew it was the Korean phD student, Kim-san. Like always, his voice is close to the volume of yelling. He said "What HAPPEND TO MY COMPUTER!"

I said, "I don't know, what's wrong? " (I guess the problem student pointed the finger at me)
He said, "I can't turn it on."
I said, "I updated the printer driver on your computer, then turned it off, that's about it."
He said, "I can't turn on the monitor, but the PC is on"
I said, "Ohgai-san was checking all the electrical wirings, maybe the cable is loose"
He said,"NO, it's not loose, I checked already" (he checked one more time while I was on the phone)
I said, "Do you see the power button turning on, on the monitor?"
He said,"Yeah, it's on, but it says, awaiting signal"
That's when I knew that probably his data cable is loose, or either his PC wasn't sending the signal.
I said, "Make sure the data cable is not loose, because it can only be two things"
He said,"NO NO NO, I checked it twice already."
I paused, it felt like he just wanted to yell at me and accuse me of something. I said, then your PC is not sending the signal. Can you turn off you PC?
He said, "I restarted it twice already."
Then I heard a beep. His computer was actually in hibernation, he had to do a hard power off.
He said, "OKAY OKAY, sorry." "Where are you now?" (I could tell he felt guilty)
I said, "I am in my dorm"
He said, "Okay, nothing else, bye"

I was disgusted. I felt what I was doing was really unappreciated. Why do I have to fix anything for anybody in this lab? It's not my duty anyway. I felt disgusted that I have to endure the emotional rampage of these students. Sometmes I just wish that they can all leave me alone.